


No more talking, Rei-chan

by thisfairytalegonebad



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sickfic, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 17:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7181579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisfairytalegonebad/pseuds/thisfairytalegonebad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or: Rei has a cold and his voice is dying and Nagisa banned him from talking.</p><p>If Haru and Makoto can do the mind reading thing, then Nagisa should be able to do it with Rei as well, shouldn't he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	No more talking, Rei-chan

**Author's Note:**

> Am I a multifandom writer yet? 
> 
> The swimming homos have destroyed me, that's all there's left to say.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Hey, Rei-chan!”

“Good morning, Nagisa-kun,” Rei croaked, glancing at the boy who had attached himself firmly to his right arm. Like always, Nagisa had arrived at the last possible moment, so the train was already waiting.

Nagisa cocked his head at Rei as they stepped into the train. “What happened to your voice, Rei-chan?”

“Ah, nothing, just a cold. I’m almost over it, but I’m afraid my voice might give out at this rate,” Rei explained, voice getting weaker and weaker until the end of the sentence came out as a whisper.

“Hmm,” Nagisa hummed, staring at Rei thoughtfully. After a few seconds of what seemed to be very hard thinking, judging from the red colour Nagisa’s face was slowly obtaining, he snapped his fingers. “Ah! I know! You’ll just have to keep quiet from now on!”

Rei observed him doubtfully. “I don’t think that will work, Nagisa-kun, I can’t just not talk at school,” he croaked, wincing at the sound of his own voice; that hadn’t sounded beautiful at all.

“Ah-ah, Rei-chan,” Nagisa cried, waving his finger in front of Rei’s face. “It will work, trust me. Don’t you trust me, Rei-chan?” Within less than a second, he had adopted a puppy look, the one puppy look that usually made it very hard for Rei to say no to him.

Rei made a mental note to research about how to resist looks like those. “That’s not it!” he protested weakly. “I just don’t understand how I am supposed not to talk at school!”

“It’s no problem! I’ve got a plan! So from now on, no more talking, Rei-chan!”

Rei sighed but kept quiet obediently. It was no use, he knew when he’d lost… which was pretty much always when it came to dealing with Nagisa.

Nagisa, apparently, was satisfied, as he attached himself to Rei once more, and patted his head gently. “Yep, just like that, Rei-chan!”

* * *

 Class was… difficult.

It wasn’t that Rei didn’t see the advantages of not talking - his throat was hurting significantly less than in the morning - but he was also painfully aware of the _disadvantages_. Disadvantages like not being able to answer in class as he usually did, that was. Or not being able to scold Nagisa when he tried to interact with him from behind him, either by chattering happily or by throwing slips of paper with little doodles -hearts, for example - at him.

Those notes were especially annoying. Not the notes per se, but more the… reactions they caused in him. Excessive blushing, for example, which was he was trying to get back under control in that very second. _Are you a 45 degree angle? Because you're acute-y,_ the latest note read. And Rei’s head felt close to burning up in a way he was sure didn’t have anything to do with his cold.

“-Ryugazaki-kun?”

Rei flinched. He hadn’t heard the question at all, and he was going to have to break his (admittedly quite one-sided) deal with Nagisa if he wanted to answer.

But before he could even come up with anything, Nagisa chirped happily from behind him, “Ah, sorry, Rei-chan has a cold, he can’t speak.”

The teacher paused, then smiled at Nagisa sweetly. “Oh, in that case, I’m sure you can answer in his place.”

“I- uhm…” Nagisa’s smile fell, but by now Rei had figured out the teacher merely wanted the result of the equation on the blackboard, so he quickly scribbled it down on his sheet big enough for Nagisa to read, and placed it on at the edge of the desk so Nagisa could repeat it to the teacher.

Nagisa’s smile returned as he repeated Rei’s solution happily. The teacher looked surprised for a second, but then smiled too and praised him for being so attentive for once.

Once she had gone back to explaining, another note landed on Rei’s desk.

 _Thanks Rei-chan <3 _, it read, and it made him blush, just a little.

* * *

 During lunchtime, they met up with the others.

Nagisa started waving frantically from the second he spotted Makoto and Haru. “Mako-chan, Haru-chan,” he cried, the smile that decorated his face so huge Rei briefly wondered if it wasn’t hurting his cheeks.

While Haru made no move to indicate that he had seen them, Makoto raised his hand to wave back. “Hello, Nagisa, Rei,” he said, once he got close enough not to have to yell anymore.

“Hello,” Haru echoed.

Rei opened his mouth to greet his friends as well, but Nagisa was quick to latch onto him and clasp his hand over his mouth. “Ah, Rei-chan! Remember? No talking!”

“Mmmph!” Rei tried to protest, because Nagisa’s hand was also halfway over his nose, which made it somewhat difficult to breathe.

“Rei-chan! No talking! Did that even count as talking? I’m not sure, but just in case, you can’t make any kind of sound now, you hear!”

“Uh, Nagisa?” Makoto tried, “What’s going on? Why isn’t Rei allowed to talk?”

 _Finally_ , just before Rei was starting to feel light headed from the lack of oxygen, Nagisa removed his hand from his mouth. “You see, Mako-chan,” he announced, “Rei-chan has caught a cold, and his voice has pretty much died. You should’ve heard him, he sounded like a dying crow.” He ignored Rei’s sound of protest, and continued, “Anyway, so I banned him from speaking because talking sounded really painful, and maybe his voice will come back sooner if he doesn’t use it.”

Actually, Rei had to admit, even though it was kind of annoying, Nagisa’s concern was really touching… and it made him blush again. Just a tiny bit.

“Oh… but then Rei can’t communicate with us at all!” Makoto pointed out, examining Rei with concern.

Nagisa puffed his chest proudly. “I’ve got a plan for that! You know that awesome thing you and Haru-chan can do, reading each other’s mind and all that? Well I’m just going to do the same thing for Rei-chan! It’ll work, I’m sure!”

Rei stared at Nagisa in surprise, while Makoto put his hand to his chin in thought. “Well… you two are really close, so I suppose it could work… Not to mention Rei is kind of easier to read than Haru. No offense, Rei.”

“Yep! See, right now he’s thinking he’s not easy to read at all. Silly Rei-chan, you don’t think you’re cool still, do you?”

Rei almost choked on his lunch; he was _not_ easy to read _at all_!

“Aww, don’t mind it,” Nagisa teased, “We love you the way you are.”

Rei huffed and leaned back, crossing his arms, and refusing to look at Nagisa, but also half trying to glare at him.

Nagisa giggled, but then gasped. “Rei-chan! You can’t mean that!” he cried, sounding so utterly shocked and _devastated_ that several students turned to stare at him.

“Huh? What do you mean, Nagisa?” Makoto asked, looking utterly confused, and even Haru displayed some sort of curiosity.

“Rei-chan is going to refuse to buy me ice cream today after school,” Nagisa explained miserably.

If that sort of thing hadn’t only happened in movies, Rei’s jaw would’ve dropped, because _just how-_

“What- Nagisa, how did you- is he right, Rei?” Makoto asked incredulously, looking from Nagisa to Rei, and back at Nagisa again.

Rei could only nod dumbfoundedly because _Nagisa was actually right?_

“Rei-chan didn’t think I could actually read his mind, and he has no idea how that’s even scientifically possible, and he’s totally going to spend the night looking for information on that topic. Rei-chan! You can’t do that! You need to sleep, especially if you have a cold!”

“Impressive,” Makoto muttered. “Haru and I have known each other almost from the very start, but you two haven’t known each other for that long yet. I suppose you’re even closer than I thought,” he smiled gently.

Rei had lost count of how many times he’d blushed that day, all he knew was that he could’ve added another to the mental list at that very moment.

Unfortunately, Makoto noticed right away. “Eh? Rei? You’re so red, you don’t have a fever, do you?” He scooted closer to place his hand on Rei’s forehead. “Is that cold of yours getting worse?”

“Don’t worry, he’s just all embarrassed about what you said, about us being close. Seriously, Mako-chan, you’re such a mom!”

Even Haru looked mildly impressed at that point. And Rei… Rei had no idea what to do with that newfound piece of information. It was… unsettling, to put it mildly. He really wasn’t sure he was comfortable with someone being able to read his thoughts. Especially because something like that shouldn’t even have been possible! It was completely illogical!

Nagisa threw his arms around Rei, and rubbed his back comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Rei-chan, I know you think it’s impossible, but you’re just really easy to read.”

“Not really,” Makoto sighed, apparently having accepted yet another strange thing about Nagisa. “It’s easy to get a general idea of how Rei feels most of the time, but what _you_ figure out is way too specific to be anything like that. It’s really almost as if you could read his thoughts.”

Rei looked at Nagisa. He _really_ hoped Nagisa couldn’t read _all_ of his thoughts, because…

“Beautiful? Huh, Rei-chan, what’s beautiful? Did you see a butterfly? Where is it?” Nagisa asked, craning his neck trying to spot the inexistent butterfly.

Rei heaved a defeated sigh while trying to get the colour of his face back under control.

* * *

 “Let’s meet up with Rin-chan after school!” Nagisa suggested after lunch. “I wanna show him how I can read Rei-chan’s mind!”

Haru nodded, and Makoto said, “That’s a good idea, actually. We haven’t seen him in a while. He’ll be happy if we ask him. Rei? Are you free too?”

“Rei-chan thinks it’s a stupid reason to meet up just to show off, but he doesn’t mind us inviting Rin-chan,” Nagisa answered for him, and Rei felt frustration rise in his chest when Nagisa was right once again. He hadn’t even had to answer that! Rei could just have nodded…

“We can go to my house,” Haru offered quietly.

“Okay, thanks Haru-chan! I’ll text him, then,” Nagisa said, rummaging in his bag for his phone. He pressed some buttons, and Rin’s reply came almost instantly.

“Rin-chan is in too!”

* * *

 “What, so now you two can do the freaky thing too?” Rin asked exasperatedly as he sat down on the floor next to Rei.

Rei buried his nose in his scarf - Nagisa’s scarf, actually, he’d given it to him and insisted on him wearing it so he’d get better soon, and Rei had to admit it was nice and warm and kept him from getting cold - and sighed quietly. One might have assumed the entire thing would’ve got boring by now, but Nagisa had kept talking about it, as well as blurting out most of his thoughts to their friends all day.

“Yeah, I just discovered it today! I’ve never tried before, though,” Nagisa said enthusiastically. “Hey, Rei-chan, think something.”

Rei made no move to indicate he’d heard him, but after a few seconds Nagisa started to laugh. “Rei-chan, did you actually think ‘something’, as in, the word?”

Rin’s head snapped around to stare at Rei. “Is he actually right?” Rei nodded in defeat, and Rin snorted. “Unbelievable. You’d think one pair of mind reading freaks should be enough, but apparently not.”

“Told ya! Haru-chan, have you got food?” Nagisa jumped up and ran up to Haru who was getting drinks from the kitchen, pushing past Makoto who was on the phone with his mother to inform her he’d be getting home later than usual. “Do you have anything sweet?”

Rei stared at the floor lost in his thoughts, flinching when he felt Rin nudge his shoulder. “You’re lucky he’s not all that fast when it comes to particular feelings.”

At Rei’s questioning face, he shoved him playfully. “I’m saying, _everyone_ can see how you feel about him, idiot. Everyone except for him, that is. Not even now that he has that weird mind thing going on, apparently.” He paused, seeming to consider how to choose his next words. “You should tell him, though. Well, maybe not today, considering your voice is dead, but you should. Makoto says to let you guys figure out yourself, and Haru wants to let the water show you or some shit, but it’s getting physically painful to watch you two drool over each other without even noticing. Because newsflash, he’s completely under your spell. So, please, for my sake, _tell him_ ,” Rin instructed firmly, poking Rei’s forehead during the last part.

Rei’s eyes widened. Nagisa… liked him too? But… that wasn’t actually possible- was it?

“Rin-san,” he forced out of his poor abused throat croakily, temporarily breaking his deal with Nagisa, “Are you sure?”

Rin winced. “Damn, Nagisa is right, you really shouldn’t be talking, you sound horrible. But yes, of course. He likes you back just as much as you like him. Go for it, butterfly boy,” he said, patting Rei’s back encouragingly before getting up and joining Haru and Nagisa in the kitchen.   

* * *

 It was already dark outside when Rei and Nagisa left Haru’s house together, and it had started snowing lightly. Nagisa gently slipped his hand into Rei’s, for warmth, as he claimed. It was enough to send Rei’s heart into race mode, and he stopped walking. _Tell him,_ Rin’s voice echoed in his head.

“Rei-chan? Is something wrong?” Nagisa asked, frowning up at him, and Rei’s heart skipped a beat at how beautiful he looked.

“Na-” he started, but his voice cracked painfully after the first syllable, sending him into a coughing fit.

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa cried, slapping his back in an attempt to stop the coughing. “I told you not to talk!”

Rei wanted to tell him that there was no use in slapping his back, since he wasn’t choking, but found that trying to regain his breathing was taking up most of his concentration.

Then finally, the coughing subsided, leaving him feeling exhausted and out of breath.

He opened his mouth again in a second attempt but this time no sound came out at all. Apparently his voice had ultimately decided to give up. Frustration and something like despair bubbled in his chest; he had to tell Nagisa now, or he’d go insane!

“Rei-chan? Rei-chan, calm down, what’s wrong?” Nagisa pressed, looking worried for his friend. He pressed his hand more tightly to calm him down.

Without thinking, Rei finally grabbed Nagisa’s waist, pulled him closer, and pressed his lips onto Nagisa’s left cheek.

For a few seconds, both of them stood frozen, before Rei all but jerked away from Nagisa, starting at him in horror. But Nagisa’s expression didn’t mirror his own; instead a soft smile formed on his lips.

 “So that’s how it is,” he said quietly, moving closer to Rei. He reached up to tangle his hand in Rei’s hair to pull him down a little, and stood on the tips of his toes so he could reach Rei’s face. Cupping Rei’s face with his hand, he placed his lips on Rei’s softly.

Rei couldn’t move, and even when Nagisa pulled away again, he could only stare at him in disbelief.

“I like you too, Rei-chan,” Nagisa confessed, “I’ve had for the longest time.” He shifted to kiss Rei again, but Rei pulled away. “Rei-chan? Ah, I get it! You don’t have to worry about getting me sick, I’ll be fine!”

He reached up again and stole another kiss from Rei, frowning when he touched Rei’s skin. “You feel warm, Rei-chan, I think your fever came back. Let’s get you home, yeah?”

Rei nodded, finally remembering how to function again. “Stay over tonight,” he managed to whisper out, and Nagisa smiled at him gently as they started walking again. “Okay, but only if you’re quiet now.”  
  


**Author's Note:**

> First of all I'm sorry, this is barely proofread, but it's late and I haven't looked at the stuff for my physics test tomorrow yet, but I really wanted to post it. Plus, this is my first time writing for this fandom, so it's the first time for me writing those characters as well. Sorry if anything is strange in any way, and please do tell me.
> 
> This idea struck me in class because of this one girl whose voice was dying to the point of every word sounding fucking painful, yet she kept speaking up in class, idk I didn't get it. But it did get me this super cute fic idea so thanks to her I guess. 
> 
> Pls come yell at me about Free! on my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Butterfly_OnIce) or [Tumblr](thisfairytalegonebad.tumblr.com)!! I feel lonely with my obsession  
> First I wasn't happy about how this was developing but now I actually am, I hope you liked it too. Comments make my day!


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